Academic writing can sound unnatural out of context. But it's accurate, and that can be important in some cases. Mating a plural pronoun with a singular antecedent is never appropriate or accurate, and it's not a good solution to gender sensitivity. Gender in English pronouns really has nothing more to do with female/male issues than do gender specific noun endings in Spanish. That was my only point. I'm not suggesting that we should "eschew" conversational English. But the gender sensitivity issue is nonsense. And if the gd queen wants to go to parliment, well then, hell, let her go to parliment. But you probably ought to keep her away from parliament <vbg>.
> Yes, it makes you sound like you think the queen should have a seat in > parliment. Even the queen herself does not believe that anymore. > > graywolf > http://www.graywolfphoto.com > "Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof" > ----------------------------------- > > > > > Bob W wrote: > > > > > As usual it's a question of register and of what is appropriate for > > the situation. I'm not American or academic enough to know much about > > it, but in general one eschews both 'one' and 'eschew' in British > > English these days. It sounds rather pompous, unnatural and old-fashioned. > > >
